Pensum
Pensum vs Lose It!
Lose It looks affordable: a real free tier and Premium at around 40 USD per year. The gap shows up once you track seriously. Custom macro goals in grams, eating-pattern insights, a fasting timer and body measurements are Premium, and the free tier carries banner ads in daily use. Pensum puts the serious-tracking features in the free core, with no ads, no account and no card.
Download for AndroidEarly build, Android only. An honest comparison; where Lose It is better, we say so.
Side by side
Facts as of 2026. Subscription prices change and vary by region, so treat any figure as approximate and check the app store for the current number.
| Pensum | Lose It | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Full-featured core, free | Real free tier for logging; serious features and ad-free are Premium |
| Cost to keep using | Everything free now; tracking stays free, optional Pro one day | Free tier usable; Premium around 40 USD per year for the rest |
| Ads | None, on any tier | Banner ads on the free tier; ad-free is a Premium upgrade |
| Behind the paywall | Nothing. Gram macro targets, trends, timestamps and adaptive expenditure: all free | Custom macro goals in grams, eating-pattern insights, fasting timer, body measurements, meal planning |
| Macro targets in grams | Free | Premium |
| Adaptive expenditure / TDEE | Yes, in the free core, with weekly check-in | Personalized calorie budget from your goal; not adaptive expenditure |
| Food database | USDA plus German and Swiss national databases, generic foods first | Very large crowd-built database, broad US brands |
| Privacy | Local-first, no account | Cloud account |
| Platforms | Android (early); Health Connect sync | iOS, Android |
Where Lose It is stronger: it is friendly, mature and runs on both iOS and Android, with broad US brand-name food coverage. For casual calorie awareness on a budget, its free tier is fine. The question is what happens when you want gram targets, patterns and timestamps, and whether the ads and around 40 dollars a year are worth it.
What actually differs
The three differences that actually matter.
The free tier is real, but serious tracking is Premium
Lose It's free tier genuinely works for calorie logging, which is more than some rivals offer. The features that matter once you track seriously are Premium: custom macro goals in grams, eating-pattern insights, an intermittent fasting timer, body measurements and meal planning. The free tier also shows banner ads, and removing them is itself a Premium upgrade. Premium runs around 40 USD per year. Pensum keeps those tracking features in the free core and shows no ads on any tier.
Gram targets and adaptive expenditure, free
Serious macro tracking means setting targets in grams and watching your real energy needs change over time. Lose It gives you a personalized calorie budget and puts gram-level macro goals behind Premium. Pensum sets macro targets in grams for free, and estimates your real energy expenditure from your logged weight and intake, updating targets with a weekly check-in. Both ship in the free core today.
National food data, generic-first
Lose It relies on a very large crowd-built database, which gives it broad US brand-name coverage. Pensum is built from national sources, USDA plus the German and Swiss food composition databases, and ranks generic whole foods above branded products, so searching a plain food returns the plain food. Every value carries a verified, partial or estimated flag. If you eat European foods, the German and Swiss coverage is a bonus almost no global app matches.
Who should switch, and who should not
If you want a friendly, mature app that runs on both iOS and Android and you mainly want casual calorie awareness on a budget, Lose It's free tier does the job. If you track seriously, with gram-level macro targets, trends, meal timestamps and adaptive expenditure, Pensum ships all of it in the free core, with no ads. Where Lose It's free tier stops, Pensum keeps going without a paywall.
Questions
Is Pensum a good Lose It alternative?
If you like Lose It but keep hitting Premium prompts, Pensum is a direct alternative: the tracker is free with no ads, and the serious-tracking features Lose It charges for, gram-level macro targets, trends, meal timestamps and adaptive expenditure, ship in the free core. Lose It is friendlier, more mature and runs on both iOS and Android, so for casual calorie awareness on a budget it remains a fine app.
What does Lose It paywall behind Premium?
Lose It's free tier covers calorie logging and its large food database, but several features people want for serious tracking sit behind Premium: custom macro goals in grams, eating-pattern insights, an intermittent fasting timer, body measurements and meal planning. Premium also removes the ads, and it costs around 40 USD per year. In Pensum those tracking features are all in the free core.
Does Lose It show ads?
Yes. Lose It shows banner ads on its free tier, and an ad-free experience is one of the things Premium unlocks. Pensum has no ads on any tier, so there are none to remove.
Can I set macro targets in grams for free in Pensum?
Yes. Pensum lets you set macro targets in grams for free. In Lose It, custom macro goals in grams are a Premium feature; the free tier shows your macro totals but does not let you set gram targets.
Is Pensum free?
Right now everything in Pensum is free with no ads on any tier: the full diary, the 16,000-food database from USDA, German and Swiss sources, saved meals, recipes, trends, targets, weigh-ins, Health Connect sync, and AI meal-photo scanning. If that changes one day, the AI extras become an optional Pro upgrade; everyday manual tracking stays free forever.
Which food database is better, Pensum or Lose It?
Lose It has a very large crowd-built food database with strong US brand-name coverage. Pensum bundles USDA data plus the German and Swiss national food databases, ranks generic whole foods above branded products, and flags every value as verified, partial or estimated. For US brand-name products Lose It is broad; for generic whole foods and European items Pensum has coverage most global apps lack.
The serious-tracking features Lose It charges for: gram targets, trends, adaptive expenditure. All free.
Download for Android